30/07/2011 BBC Weekend News

A very good afternoon to you. The head of the tax office, Her

Majesty's Revenue and Customs, has admitted their service was not good

enough last year. It comes after MPs criticise HMRC for not

answering calls or replying to letters quickly enough.

Dealing the taxman can been aish shoe at the best of times.

According to today's report HMRC's service standards make that

experience more testing. The Treasury Select Committee said that

there were unacceptable difficulties contacting HMRC by

phone and endemic delays in responding to written letters and

the organisation's staff had little confidence in their own managers.

Staff morale in the department is the lowest in Whitehall. That's the

official figures - the lowest in Whitehall. If you have an unhappy

staff, you have problems. If you have unhappy customers, you should

speak to them, pick up problems and take steps to deal with them.

That's all we ask. And the people who run HMRC have

acknowledged problems. We're not happy with our performance in 2010.

What we are doing is getting on with trying to improve it. 2011, on

most of the issues they raised, we have improved performance.

total tax take was up last year, thanks in part to an aggressive

campaign against tax avoiders. In the United States, negotiations on

raising borrowing limits are continuing. Leading senators and

Congressmen are working through the weekend to try and brobger a deal.

If they fail oh to -- broker a deal. If they fail to meet a deadline the

largest economy could default on debts or run out of money for

things like pension payments. The Metropolitan Police have confirmed

they are investigating claims of computer hacking as well as phone

hacking. Officers will consider breach of prifsy allegations. Our

correspondent -- privacy allegations. Our correspondent is

at Scotland Yard for us. This operation has been running for some

time. What has happened now is they are beating it up. They are getting

a new team of officers to come along and examine allegations that

public figures, journalists and so on had their computer files, that

is to say files and e-mails hacked, through the use of Trojan e-mails.

They say this investigation will include also a look at allegations

made by a Panorama programme into an undercover agent, working in

Northern Ireland, who infiltrated the IRA. His computer was hacked.

That will form a major part of this investigation. Thank you. Crowds

hoping to catch a glimpse of the Royal Family have began to gather

for Zara Philips's big day in Edinburgh. She will Mary -- marry

Mike Tindall this afternoon. Our correspondent is in Edinburgh for

us and joins us now. What is the atmosphere like? Are big crowds

there already? Good afternoon, Sue. We have a crowd of several hundred

here. A stretch of the Royal Mile here is closed off. Heavy security,

as you would expect. The flags are out. The first guests are due to

arrive in an hour. The ceremony itself takes place at 3pm. It is

not a state occasion, but not quite a royal affair. Zara Philips is

13th in line to the throne. That helps with the �500,000 cost of

security to look after this central area of Edinburgh. We had a glimpse

last night of the royals at the wedding party, the pre-wedding